How much is $700 billion?

Approved Financial Bailouts by U.S. Senate.

Shockwaves from the global credit crisis spread on Thursday, threatening industry and jobs worldwide and putting pressure on the US Congress to pass a $700 billion bailout of the US financial sector.

But how much is $700 billion — what can it buy? Compared to the debt of the United States, which the US Treasury has asked to increase to $11.315 trillion to fund the plan, it doesn’t seem much.

Here are a few of the things that can be done with $700 billion:

» The United States has spent more than $800 billion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

» Just 12 Bill Gateses could foot the bail-out bill. The Microsoft founder tops Forbes’ US rich list with a personal fortune estimated at $57 billion.

» Collectively, the 400 richest Americans have a net worth of $1.57 trillion, or roughly twice the value of the bail-out.

» $700 billion is roughly equal to the GDP of Netherlands, or five times that of Pakistan.

» It is only $100 billion short of the combined GDP of all of Africa.

» It is only $78 billion more than the 2007 US defense budget.

» It would buy around 130 of the latest, biggest aircraft carriers, which cost about $5.3 billion each.

» The plan could be funded with the market capitalizations of the world’s two largest oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp and PetroChina, which stood at $403 billion and $325 billion respectively at Thursday’s close of trading. There would even be $28 billion in change.

Source [ Reuters ]